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RA790.A1  N212     Some  phases  of  the 


RECAP 


Lewellys  F.  Barker 


Some  phases  of  the  mental  hygiene  movement  and 
the  scope  of  work  of  the  National  committee  for 
mental  hygiene. 


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Columbia  Uuiversit 
New  Yor& 


SOME  PHASES 


OF 


The  Mental  Hygiene  Movement 


AND 


THE  SCOPE  OF  THE  WORK 


OF 


The  National  Committee  for 
Mental  Hygiene 


BY 


LEWELLYS  F.  BARKER,  M.  D. 

President  of  the  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene 


PUBLISHED  BY 

The  National  Committee  for   Mental  Hygiene 

50  Union  Square,  New  York 

1912 


.ICATION  No.  4 


It. tii 


The  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene 

50  UNION  SQUARE,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


President 
DR.  LEWELLYS   F.  BARKER 

Treasurer  Vice-Presidents  Secretary 

[R.  OTTO  T.  BANNARD  DR.  WILLIAM  H.  WELCH  MR.  CLIFFORD  W.  BEERS 

DR.  CHARLES  P.  BANCROFT 

DR.  GEORGE  BLUMER,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee 
PROF.  RUSSELL  H.  CHITTENDEN,  Chairman,  Finance  Committee 
DR.  WILLIAM  L.  RUSSELL,  Chairman,  Committee  on  Survey 
DR.  THOMAS  W.  SALMON.  Director  of  Special  Studies 

MEMBERS 

Mrs.  Milo  M.  Acker,  Hornell,  N.  Y.  Harry  Pratt  Judson,   Chicago 

Jane  Addams,    Chicago  John   Koren,   Boston 
Edwin  A.   Alderman,   Charlottesville,   Va.  Julia  C.   Lathrop,  Washington 

James  B.  Angell,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay,  New  York 

Dr.   Pearce  Bailey,  New  York  George   P.    McLean,    Simsbury,    Conn. 
Dr.  Charles  P.  Bancroft,  Concord,  N.  H.        Dr.  William  Mabon,  New  York 

Otto  T.    Bannard,   New  York  Marcus  M.   Marks,  New  York 

Dr.  Lewellys  F.   Barker.   Baltimore  Lee   Meriwether,   St.   Louis 
Dr.  Albert  M.  Barrett,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.       Mrs.  Philip  N.  Moore,  St.  Louis 

Dr.   Frank  Billings,   Chicago  Dr.  J.   Montgomery  Mosher,  Albany 

Surg.   Gen.  Rupert  Blue,  Washington  Cyrus  Northrop,  Minneapolis 

Dr.   George  Blumer,   New   Haven  Dr.   Stewart  Paton,   Princeton 

Dr.  G.  Alder  Blumer,  Providence  Francis  G.    Peabody,   Cambridge 

Russell  H.  Chittenden,  New  Haven  Dr.  Frederick  Peterson,  New  York 

Dr.   William   B.   Coley,  New  York  Henry   Phipps,   New   York 

Dr.   Owen   Copp,   Philadelphia  Gifford   Pinchot,   Washington 

Dr.  Charles  L.  Dana,  New  York  Florence  M.   Rhett,  New  York 

Dr.  Charles  P.  Emerson,  Indianapolis  Jacob  A.  Rus,  New  York 

W.  H.  P.  Faunce,  Providence  Dr.  Wm.  L.  Russell,  White  Plains,  N.  Y. 

Dr.  Henry  B.   Favill,  Chicago  Jacob  Gould  Schurman,  Ithaca 

Katherine   S.    Felton,   San  Francisco  Dr.  M.   Allen   Starr,  New  York 

Irving  Fisher,  New  Haven  Anson  Phelps   Stokes,  Jr.,  New  Haven 

Matthew  C.   Fleming,  New  York  Melville  E.   Stone,  New  York 

Horace  Fletcher,   New  York  Sherman  D.  Thacher,  Nordhoff,  Cal. 

_   Homer  Folks,  New  York  Henry  van  Dyke,  D.D.,  Princeton 

James,  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Baltimore  Dr.  Henry  P.   Walcott,  Cambridge 

Arthur  T.   Hadley,  New  Haven  Dr.  William  H.  Welch,   Baltimore 

Henry  L.  Higginson,  Boston  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  Berkeley,  Cal. 

Dr.  August  Hoch,  New  York  Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams,  New  York 

Mrs.  William  James,   Cambridge  Robert  A.  Woods,  Boston 
David   Starr  Jordan,  Palo  Alto,   Cal. 

he  Chief  Objects  of  the  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene  are : 

To  work  for  the  protection  of  the  mental  health  of  the  public;  to  help  raise  the  stan- 
ird  of  care  for  those  threatened  with  mental  disorder  or  actually  ill ;  to  promote  the  study 
mental  disorders  in  all  their  forms  and  relations  and  to  disseminate  knowledge  concern- 
g  their  causes,  treatment  and  prevention  ;  to  obtain  from  every  source  reliable  data  regard- 
g  conditions  and  methods  of  dealing  with  mental  disorders ;  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the  Fed- 
al  Government  so  far  as  may  seem  desirable;  to  co-ordinate  existing  agencies  and  help 
ganize  in  each  State  in  the  Union  an  allied  but  independent  Society  for  Mental  Hygiene, 
milar  to  the  existing  Connecticut  Society  for  Mental  Hygiene. 

Inquiries  re^ardin^  the  work  and  requests  for  pamphlets 
•sued  by  the  organization  should  be  addressed  to  Clifford 
V.  Beers,  Secretary,  The  National  Committee  for  Mental 
[y^iene,  Room  1914,  No.  50  Union  Square,  New  York  City, 
r  to  Dr.  Thomas  W.  Salmon,  Director  of  Special  Studies. 


SOME  PHASES  OF  THE  MENTAL  HYGIENE  MOVEMENT 

AND 

THE  SCOPE  OF  THE  WORK 

OF 

THE  NATIONAL  COMMITTEE  FOR  MENTAL  HYGIENE* 

BY 

LEWELLYS  F.  BARKER,  M.  D. 
President  of  the  National  Committee   for  Mental  Hygiene. 

It  is  right  that,  in  an  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and 
Demography,  the  subject  of  Mental  Hygiene  should  have  especial 
representation.  Though  assigned,  as  a  sub-section,  to  the  section  on 
the  Hygiene  of  Infancy  and  Childhood,  thus  emphasizing  its  rela- 
tions to  inheritance  on  the  one  hand  and  to  the  early  environmental 
period  of  the  individual  on  the  other,  it  might  almost  equally  well, 
for  other  reasons,  have  been  made  a  sub-division  in  any  one  of  the 
main  groups  of  the  Congress.  Indeed,  so  important  is  this  sub- 
division for  the  welfare  of  individuals,  of  families,  of  communities, 
of  nations,  and  of  the  human  race  in  general,  and  so  wide  spread  its 
ramifications,  that  committees  on  the  organization  of  future  Con- 
gresses might  well  consider  the  establishment  of  an  additional  main 
section,  devoted  entirely  to  Mental  Hygiene. 

By  a  campaign  for  mental  hygiene  is  meant  a  continuous  effort 
directed  toward  conserving  and  improving  the  minds  of  the  people, 
in  other  words,  a  systematic  attempt  to  secure  human  brains,  so 
naturally  endowed  and  so  nurtured,  that  people  will  think  better, 
feel  better,  and  act  better,  than  they  do  now.  Such  a  campaign  was 
not  to  be  expected  before  the  rise  of  modern  medicine.  For  only 
with  this  rise  have  we  come  to  look  upon  states  of  mind  as  directly 
related  to  states  of  brain,  to  view  insanity  as  disordered  brain- 
function,  and  to  recognize  in  imbecility,  and  in  crime,  the  evidences 
of  brain-defect.  The  imbecile,  the  hysterical,  the  epileptic,  the 
insane,  and  the  criminal,  were  formerly  regarded  sometimes  as  saints 
or  prophets,  sometimes  as  wizards  or  witches,  often  as  the  victims 
of  demoniac  possession,  on  the  one  hand  to  be  revered  or  worshipped, 
or,  on  the  other,  to  be  burned  or  otherwise  tortured.  Now,  such 
unfortunates  are  looked  upon  as  patients  with  disordered  or  defec- 
tive nervous  systems,  proper  subjects  of  medical  care;  some  of  them 

*An  address  delivered  as  Chairman  of  the  sub-section  on  Mental  Hygiene 
of  the  15th  International  Congress  on  Hygiene  and  Demography,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  September  26,  1912. 

5 


are  curable ;  some  are  incurable,  but  still  educable  to  social  useful- 
ness ;  a  part  of  them  are  socially  so  worthless,  harmful  or  dangerous 
as  to  make  their  exclusion  from  general  society  necessary,  or  desir- 
able. It  is  but  a  short  step  from  such  a  reformation  of  ideas,  to 
the  realization  that  less  marked  deviations  from  normal  thought, 
feeling,  or  behavior,  are  also  evidences  either  of  brains  defective  from 
the  start,  or  made  abnormal  in  function  by  bad  surroundings  or  by 
bodily  disease.  As  examples  of  such  marked  abnormalities  may  be 
mentioned  those  met  with  in  children  who  are  difficult  to  educate, 
in  young  people  arraigned  in  the  Juvenile  Courts,  in  adults,  who, 
inadequate  to  the  strains  of  life,  crowd  our  hospitals  or  sanitoria  on 
account  of  "  nervous  "  or  "  mental  "  breakdown,  or  who,  owing  to 
anomalies  of  character  and  conduct,  provide  material  for  the  news 
columns  of  the  sensational  press.  Modern  medicine  has  taught  us 
to  recognize  that  the  conditions  necessary  for  a  good  mind  include, 
first,  the  inheritance  of  such  germ-plasm  from  one's  progenitors  as 
will  yield  a  brain  capable  of  a  high  grade  of  development  to  indi- 
vidual and  social  usefulness,  and,  secondly,  the  protection  of  that 
brain  from  injury  and  the  submission  of  it  to  influences  favorable 
to  the  development  of  its  powers.  Now  if  these  doctrines  of  modern 
medicine  be  true,  the  general  problems  of  mental  hygiene  become 
obvious ;  broadly  conceived,  they  consist,  first,  in  providing  for  the 
birth  of  children  endowed  with  good  brains,  denying,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  privilege  of  parenthood  to  the  manifestly  unfit  who  are 
almost  certain  to  transmit  bad  nervous  systems  to  their  offspring — 
that  is  to  say,  the  problem  of  eugenics ;  and  second,  in  supplying  all 
individuals,  from  the  moment  of  fusion  of  the  parental  germ-cells 
onward,  and  whether  ancestrally  well-begun  or  not,  with  the  environ- 
ment best  suited  for  the  welfare  of  their  mentality. 

The  natural  sciences  are  built  up  by  the  gradual  discovery  of 
causal  relationships ;  and  physicians  and  psychologists  have,  since 
the  time  of  Pinel,  gone  far  in  the  establishment  of  the  laws  under- 
lying normal  and  abnormal  phenomena  of  mind.  From  the  con- 
viction that  a  proper  application  of  the  facts  already  discovered  can 
vastly  improve  the  mental  powers  of  our  people,  decreasing  to  a 
large  extent  the  prevalence  of  mental  defect  and  mental  disease,  has 
come  the  impulse  to  arouse  public  opinion  in  favor  of  a  definite 
plan  for  mental  hygiene.  This  impulse,  thanks  to  the  initiative  of  a 
layman,  Clifford  W.  Beers,  author  of  "A  Mind  That  Found  Itself  "* 

*An  autobiography,  published  by  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  440  Fourth 
Avenue,  New  York. 

6 


(now  Secretary  of  the  National  Committee),  whose  personal  suffer- 
ings led  him,  on  recovery,  to  devote  himself  to  the  cause  of  mental 
hygiene,  and  who  enlisted  the  co-operation  of  a  group  of  represen- 
tative men  and  social  workers,  has  found  expression  in  the  volun- 
tary formation  of  a  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene.*  The 
policy  to  be  pursued  by  the  Committee  has  been  formulated  largely 
as  a  result  of  the  deliberations  of  the  first  Chairman  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  in  consultation  with  other  distinguished  psychiatrists 
and  social  workers. 

Among  its  objects  may  be  emphasized  (i)  the  protection  of  the 
mental  health  of  the  public  at  large;  (2)  the  promotion  of  the  study 
of  mental  disorders  in  all  their  forms  and  relations,  and  the  dis- 
semination of  knowledge  concerning  their  causes,  treatment  and 
prevention;  and  (3)  the  amelioration  of  conditions  among  those 
already  suffering  from  mental  disorder. 

The  Committee  on  Program  has  asked  me  to  describe  briefly  the 
scope  of  the  work  of  the  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene. 

As  I  see  it,  there  are  three  great  fields  in  which  the  National 
Committee  may  advantageously  labor. 

First,  there  is  the  field  of  original  inquiry  regarding  the  problems 
of  mental  hygiene.  A  National  Committee,  adequately  endowed 
could  support  and  direct  the  investigation  of  special  questions  by 
experts,  thus  adding  to  the  knowledge  which  can  be  applied  in  the 
more  practical  part  of  the  campaign.  This  work  of  research  is 
very  costly;  were  they  available,  immense  sums  could  be  used  for 
studying  the  influences  of  heredity  and  of  external  circumstances 
upon  the  structure  and  functions  of  the  human  nervous  system; 
meanwhile,  a  National  Committee,  composed  of  leaders  of  thought 
among  the  men  and  women  of  the  country  can  do  much  to  favor 
such  studies  by  university  departments,  by  existing  institutes  of 
research,  and  by  other  agencies  already  organized. 

The  second  field  includes  the  great  work  of  educating  the  nation 
to  use  the  knowledge  which  scientific  investigators  have  already 
put  at  our  disposal.     In  this  field  three  powerful  enemies  oppose 

*  This  Committee  was  founded  at  a  meeting  held  in  New  York  City,  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1909,  when  the  following  officers  were  appointed  for  the  first  year : 
President,  Dr.  Henry  B.  Favill;  Vice-Presidents,  Dr.  Charles  P.  Bancroft 
and  Dr.  William  H.  Welch;  Executive  Committee,  Dr.  Adolf  Meyer  (Chair- 
man), Dr.  C.  P.  Bancroft,  Professor  Russell  H.  Chittenden,  Professor  Wil- 
liam James  and  Miss  Julia  C.  Lathrop.  The  Chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee,  at  present,  is  Dr.  George  Blumer,  Dean  of  Yale  Medical  School. 


us — ignorance,  apathy,  and  prejudice.  These  hostile  forces,  we 
must  overcome.  They  will  retreat,  as  they  always  do,  before  the 
attack  of  men  and  women  armed  with  accurate  knowledge  of  facts 
and  energized  by  the  emotions  which  accompany  visions  of  remedi- 
able evil. 

In  this  campaign  of  education,  the  general  public,  physicians, 
school-teachers,  the  clergy,  members  of  the  legal  profession,  our 
legislators- -all  must  be  taught  the  particular  truths  regarding 
mental  hygiene  which  each  group,  respectively,  can  best  apply. 

Only  a  minority  of  the  public  know  and  realize  that  the  kind  of 
mind  an  individual  has  depends  upon  the  inborn  qualities  of  brain 
he  inherits  and  the  influences  which  act  upon  it  afterwards ;  that  not 
only  imbecility,  insanity,  and  epilepsy  are  due  to  disordered  or 
defective  nervous  systems,  but  that  further,  inebriety,  prostitution^ 
vagrancy,  pjuperism  and  crime  have  the  same  origin,  as  do  also 
meducability,  laziness,  and  other  forms  of  mental  disability.  Not 
'  many  know  that~40  to  50%  of  all  severer  cases  of  mental  disorder 
are  due  to  known  and  well  defined  causes,  preventable  by  means 
with  which  we  are  now  acquainted  •  that  25  %  of  the  patients 
admitted  to  institutions  for  the  insane,  and  a  large  proportion 
of  the  criminals  in  confinement  have  brains  that  have  been 
injured  by  the  abuse  of  alcohol ;  and  that  all  general  paresis,  and 
much  mental  disorder  of  other  sorts,  has  been  preceded  by 
syphilitic  infection,  usually  insufficiently  treated.  Only  a  few  are 
aware  that  there  are  already  about  250,000  insane  people  in  the 
United  States  to-day,  and  that  the  number  is  increasing  at  the 
rate  of  three  or  four  per  every  thousand  of  increase  of  population. 
Not  enough  people  realize  that,  if  two  imbeciles  marry,  all  their 
children  will  be  imbecile;  or  that  when  imbeciles  marry  normal 
persons,  about  half  the  total  offspring  are  feeble-minded  or 
degenerate.  Nor,  as  yet  has  it  been  possible  to  impress  the  public 
with  the  facts  that  the  social  stigmatizing  of  the  insane  is  cruel  and 
unreasonable;  that  suicide,  occurring  as  a  result  of  a  psychopathic 
constitution,  should  excite  the  sympathy  rather  than  the  moral 
judgment  of  those  who  think  humanely;  that  early  treatment  of 
insanity  in  suitable  institutions  leads  to  complete  recovery  in  at 
least  25%  of  the  cases;  or  with  a  thousand  other  facts  that  ought 
to  be  known  and  realized. 

/     How  are  the  important  data  regarding  the  protection  of  the 
I  mental  health  of  the  public  to  be  made  available  to  them  ?    This 

8 


is  one  of  the  problems  to  be  solved.  Much  can  doubtless  be  done 
through  the  dissemination  of  suitable  books  and  pamphlets,  through 
sensible  articles  in  magazines  and  newspapers,  through  public  lec- 
tures, through  "  mental  hygiene  exhibits  "  (such  as  the  admirable 
one  prepared  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Stewart  Paton,  for  the 
National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene  to  present  at  this  Con- 
gress), through  teaching  in  the  schools,  churches,  and  social  clubs, 
most  of  all,  however,  througiLlhe  advice  of  f^mily_physicians,  who 
more  than  others  have  opportunity  to  be  practically  effective  in 
'giving  wise  counsel. 

This  brings  me  to  the  education  of  physicians.  The  instruction 
in  psychiatry  in  our  medical  schools  is  sadly  deficient.  Though 
in  Germany,  each  university  has  for  many  years  had  its  psychiatric 
clinic,  it  was  not  until  recently  that  a  single  medical  school  in  this 
country  had  a  well  equipped  clinic  of  this  sort.  Now  the  outlook 
is  better.  At  Ann  Arbor,  medical  students  of  the  University  of 
Alichigan  have  for  several  years  had  the  privileges  of  a  small  clinic 
conducted  along  the  newer  lines.  At  Boston,  the  new  State  Psy- 
chopathic Hospital  will  be  available  for  educating  students  regard- 
ing the  manifestations  of  mental  disease.  And,  lately,  at  the  cost 
of  over  one  million  dollars  given  by  Henry  Phipps,  a  model  Psychi- 
atric Clinic  has  been  erected  in  connection  with  the  Johns  Hopkins 
Hospital  and  University  and  its  maintenance  guaranteed  for  the 
coming  decade.  It  cannot  be  long  now  before  every  medical  school 
of  the  first  class  will  have  its  own  psychiatric  clinic.  The  teaching 
in  these  clinics  will  undoubtedly  lead  to  great  reforms  in  the  treat- 
ment, and  in  the  prevention  of  mental  diseases.  The  National 
Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene  may  be  of  service  in  hastening 
the  advent  of  such  psychiatric  clinics.  It  intends  to  keep  on  file  all 
needed  information  regarding  them,  as  well  as  plans  of  model 
clinics,  sanitoria,  hospitals,  etc.,  which  will  be  accessible  to  insti- 
tutions, or  to  community  officials,  who  may  desire  to  consult  them. 

When  physicians  are  better  trained  in  psychiatry,  they  will  be 
even  more  helpful  than  now  in  counselling  regarding  the  marriage 
of  people  with  psychopathic  tendencies,  concerning  the  hygiene  of 
pregnancy,  of  birth,  of  childhood,  of  puberty  and  of  the  climacteric 
period,  in  relation  to  the  education  of  backward  or  of  peculiar 
children,  and  with  reference  to  dietetic,  sexual  and  occupational 
hygiene.  They  will  also  learn  to  recognize  mental  disorders  earlier 
than  now,  that  is,  at  a  stage  where  many  of  them  are  curable, 


and  will  do  much  toward  overcoming  the  prejudices  of  the  people 
against  referring  the  more  serious  cases  to  expert  care  in  suitable 
institutions. 

The  teachers  in  our  schools  and  colleges  should  gladly  join  in  a 
campaign  for  mental  hygiene,  and  they,  themselves,  will  welcome 
instruction  which  will  help  them  in  their  pedagogic  problems.  For 
teachers  have  been  among  the  first  to  notice  among  children  great 
differences  in  degree  of  educability  by  ordinary  methods.  Until 
the  reasons  were  made  clear,  some  teachers  unjustly  blamed 
children  slow  to  learn ;  other  teachers,  discouraged,  unjustly  blamed 
themselves.  Here,  scientific  medicine  has  come  to  the  aid  of 
pedagogy.  School  physicians  are  becoming  more  expert  in  dis- 
tinguishing between  inborn  and  acquired  defect,  between  remedi- 
able and  irremediable  difficulty.  The  establishment  of  special 
classes  and  of  special  schools,  for  "  feebly  endowed,"  "  backward," 
and  "  exceptional  "  children  is  removing  a  great  burden  from  the 
schools  and  the  teachers.  Special  opportunities  are  being  created 
and  new  methods  are  being  devised  through  which  such  children 
can  be  favorably  influenced. 

As  to  the  need  of  education  of  the  representatives  of  the  law — 
lawyers,  magistrates,  judges,  and  legislators — anyone  who  has 
studied  the  psychology  of  criminals  and  who  is  at  the  same  time 
familiar  with  our  laws  and  our  courts  can  attest.  Since  psychi- 
atrists have  had  the  opportunity  thoroughly  to  observe  and  study 
criminals  before,  during  and  after  punishment,  our  notions  of  the 
relations  between  crime  and  mental  disorder  (or  anomaly),  have 
been  greatly  changed.  There  is  a  growing  tendency  to  recognize 
the  dependence  of  criminal,  as  well  as  of  all  other,  acts  upon 
the  mental  state  of  the  agent,  and  of  the  latter,  in  turn,  upon  the 
functions  of  his  bodily  organs.  The  newer  knowledge  demands 
a  revision  of  the  old  problems  of  responsibility,  of  testamentary 
capacity,  and  of  the  nature  and  purpose  of  punishment.  Above  all, 
the  new  insight  into  facts  can  be  valued  for  opposing  and  prevent- 
ing crime.  For  since  we  no  longer  believe  that  every  man,  at 
every  moment,  is  entirely  free  to  act,  or  not,  in  a  given  way,  but 
have  come  to  realize  that  the  behavior  of  a  given  moment  may  be 
a  matter  of  necessity,  we  have  begun  to  see  that  to  prevent  crimin- 
ality, we  must  bring  influences  to  bear — social,  economic,  or 
medical — that  will  modify  the  mental  factors  driving  individuals 
to   anti-social   acts.      It   will   be   a   great  step   forward   when    all 

10 


offenders  brought  before  the  Juvenile  Court  shall,  after  skilled 
psychiatric  examination,  be  assigned  to  environments  that  will  do 
most  to  educate  them  to  social  usefulness.  Criminals,  young  or 
old,  incapable  of  education  to  social  value,  society  will  learn  per- 
manently to  exclude.  That  the  scandal  which  has  pertained  to 
"  expert "  medical  testimony  in  the  Courts  must  quickly  disappear, 
once  a  real  campaign  of  mental  hygiene  has  made  headway,  goes 
without  saying.  And,  that  in  the  revision  of  our  law  codes,  particu- 
larly of  its  criminal  code,  specialists  in  psychiatry  should  co-operate 
with  the  best  legal  talent,  would  seem  obvious.  Toward  the  spread 
of  these  ideas,  a  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene  should  be 
able  to  do  much. 

Indispensable  for  accomplishment  in  two  fields  already  men- 
tioned— those  of  investigation  and  of  education — is  activity  in  a 
third  great  field,  that  of  organising  the  agencies  by  which  the 
campaign  is  to  be  carried  on.  The  bulk  of  the  work  must  be  done 
by  individuals,  and  by  local  and  State  societies.  An  excellent 
beginning  has  been  made  by  the  State  Societies  for  Mental  Hygiene 
organized  in  Connecticut  and  in  Illinois,  and  by  the  Committee  on 
Mental  Hygiene  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association  of  New 
York.  To  encourage  the  work  of  such  societies,  to  stimulate  the 
foundation  of  similar  agencies  in  every  state  of  the  Union,  and 
to  co-ordinate  and  to  give  impetus  to  the  work  of  the  campaign 
throughout  the  whole  country,  will  be  among  the  principal  func- 
tions of  the  National  Committee.  And  while  correlating  the  work 
of  such  agencies,  the  National  Committee  will  make  every  effort 
to  co-operate  with  other  National  and  International  Associations 
with  allied  philanthropic  aims — eugenic,  euthenic,  pedagogic, 
sociologic,  legislative.  It  will,  of  course,  join  in  the  general  war- 
fare against  poverty  and  all  the  forms  of  social  injustice  which 
tend  to  unhinge  the  mind. 

If  the  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene  is  successful 
in  making  of  itself  a  strong/central  agency  devoted  to  the  objcets 
mentioned,  it  will  serve  a  function  of  fundamental  importance  to 
the  whole  American  people.  For  if  local  communities  remain  back- 
ward in  mental  hygiene,  they  must  sooner  or  later  injure  more 
advanced  distant  communities.  By  keeping  all  the  States  informed 
of  the  plans  of  work  adopted  where  progress  is  making  fastest, 
advances  can  be  made  more  rapidly,  more  uniformly  and  more 
economically  than  would  be  otherwise  possible.     A  representative 

II 


National  Committee  should  be  able  to  secure  that  nation-wide 
attention  to  the  problems  which  is  necessary  for  any  steady  advance 
toward  those  higher  ideals  of  mental  hygiene  which  we  cherish. 
It  is  conceivable  that  Congress  may  be  induced  to  supplement 
private  funds  in  support  of  a  movement  of  such  national  signifi- 
cance. It  would  be  a  good  policy.  Like  many  other  forward 
movements  in  this  republic,  however,  the  larger  movement  for 
mental  hygiene  must  be  initiated  and  be  voluntarily  supported  by 
those  who  see  the  need  and  the  opportunity,  long  before  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  masses  is  aware  of  them. 

To  carry  out  its  plan,  the  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene 
will  require  large  amounts  of  money.  It  would  be  hard  to  think  of 
any  project,  likely  to  yield  larger  returns,  even  in  a  material  way, 
on  money  invested  in  it.  The  care  of  the  insane  of  the  nation 
together  with  the  economic  loss  incurred  through  incapacity  and 
death  were  estimated  by  Dr.  C.  L.  Dana*  in  1904  to  be  about  85 
millions  of  dollars  per  year.  It  is  said  to  amount  now  to  much  more 
than  100,000,000  dollars  per  year.  If  we  add  to  this  the  expense 
borne  by  society  because  of  the  feeble  or  abnormal  minds  of  crim- 
inals, inebriates,  paupers  and  social  parasites  generally,  we  see  what 
enormous  sums  could  annually  be  saved  by  applying  methods  which 
will  prevent  mental  anomaly  and  defect,  or  which  will  restore  work- 
ing__capacity  and  economic  independence  to  th^sT~?urrLeTing  from 
mental  disorders. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  various  phases  of  these  problems  will  appeal 
to  patriotic  citizens  who  are  well-to-do,  and  who  are  willing  to  give 
of  their  surplus  to  better  the  minds  of  our  people.  To  some  philan- 
thropists, the  endowment  of  original  investigation  will  most  appeal ; 
to  others,  the  support  of  educative  measures ;  to  still  others,  the 
defraying  of  the  expenses  of  the  work  of  organization.  One  gentle- 
man, well-known  for  his  devotion  to  the  public  welfare,  has  offered 
to  give  $50,000  toward  an  Endowment -Fund  as  soon  as  $200,000 
has  been  given  by  others  for  the  purpose  mentioned,  and  the  same 
philanthropist  has  already  contributed  $50,000  to  the  National  Com- 
mittee for  immediate  use  in  "  helping  to  ameliorate  conditions  among 
the  insane."  This  gift  has  made  possible  the  work  of  the  "  Special 
Sub-Committee  on  the  Survey  and  Improvement  of  Conditions 
among  the  Insane,"  of  which  Dr.  William  L.  Russell  is  Chairman, 


*  See  Dr.  Dana's  address  before  the  Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  St. 
Louis,  1904. 


12 


and  Dr.  Thomas  W.  Salmon,  of  the  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service, 
who  has  been  granted  leave  of  absence  for  the  purpose,  is  the 
Director  of  the  Special  Studies  now  being  made. 

The  work  of  ameliorating  the  conditions  of  the  insane  is  very 
important  and  the  National  Committee  rejoices  in  a  gift  that  per- 
mits a  beginning  in  that  direction.  But  its  members  hope  that, 
before  very  long,  large  gifts  may  become  available,  also,  for  the 
very  important  matter  of  prevention.  Sums  of  any  size  will  be  wel- 
comed by  THe^treasureroT  the  National  Committee  for  Mental 
Hygiene,  Otto  T.  Bannard,  President  of  the  New  York  Trust  Com- 
pany, or  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee,  Professor  Rus- 
sell H.  Chittenden,  Director  of  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  New 
Haven,  Connecticut. 

The  task  which  the  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene  has 
set  itself,  is  an  enormous  one.  It  hopes  by  investigation,  by  educa- 
tion, and  by  organization  steadily  to  improve  the  brain-power  of  the 
nation.  It  is  striving  to  hasten  the  time  when  our  people  will  be  so 
begot,  and  so  reared,  that  their  minds  will  develop  normally  and 
harmoniously;  wii£H_society  will  have  less  need  than  now  for^sani- 
tajiaH^ylumsJ3n^_pjis^nsj  and  wherTalT but  anTrreducible  minority 
of  those  born  to  membership  in  the  nation  may  think,  feel,  and  act 
in  a  way  that  will  make  them  desirable  citizens  of  that  Better  State 
which  is  our  goal. 
_Tt~is~~a~~g,reatrtask,  but  surely  not  too  great  for  the  country  that 
produced  George  Washington,  and  John  Marshall,  and  Abraham 
Lincoln,  or  for  the  parents  of  a  people  to  whom  belong  Benjamin 
Franklin,  and  Willard  Gibbes,  and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 


13 


Publications 

of 

The  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene 

Sent  upon  application  free,  or  for  the  price   indicated  below. 


No.  1.  Origin,  Objects  and  Plans  of  the  National  Com- 
mittee for  Mental  Hygiene. 

No.  2.  Principles  of  Mental  Hygiene  applied  to  the 
Management  of  Children  predisposed  to  Ner- 
vousness.— By  Dr.Lewellys  F.  Barker,  Professor 
of  Medicine,  Johns  Hopkins  University.  (Issued 
March,  1912.) 

No.  3.  Summaries  of  the  Laws  relating  to  the 
Commitment  and  Care  of  the  Insane  in  the 
United  States.  Compiled  by  Mr.  John  Koren. 
Price,  One  Dollar,  postpaid.  (Issued  Septem- 
ber, 1912.) 

No.  4.  Some  Phases  of  the  Mental  Hygiene  Move- 
ment and  the  Scope  of  the  Work  of  the  National 
Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene. — By  Dr.  Lew- 
ellys  F.  Barker,  Professor  of  Medicine,  Johns 
Hopkins  University.  An  address  delivered  as 
Chairman  of  the  sub-section  on  Mental  Hygiene 
at  the  15th  International  Congress  on  Hygiene 
and  Demography,  Washington,  D.  C,  September 
26, 1912.     (Issued  November,  1912.) 


Requests  and  orders  for  pamphlets  and  reports 
should  be  addressed  to  Clifford  W.  Beers,  Secretary, 
No.  50  Union  Square,  New  York  City. 


The  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene  also 
distributes  reports  and  pamphlets  issued  by  the  Con- 
necticut Society  for  Mental  Hygiene,  the  Illinois  So- 
ciety for  Mental  Hygiene,  and  the  Committee  on 
Mental  Hygiene  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Associa- 
tion of  New  York. 


Press  of 

The  Brandow  Printing  Company 

Albany,  .  N.    Y. 


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